Heat's Hot Shooting Finishes Off Celtics

MIAMI — Used to be that a night against the Rick Pitino Celtics was a tortured experience for the Heat.

The incessant pressure. The ceaseless trapping. The unrelenting barrage of 3-pointers.

Saturday night, it merely was a mercy killing, by a 112-86 count over Boston at AmericanAirlines Arena, one that well could have ended Pitino's tenure with the Celtics.

By the time these teams meet again Wednesday at the FleetCenter, it is anticipated Pitino no longer will be coach of the Celtics.

It has gotten that bad for Boston, a team humiliated Friday night at home by lowly Golden State and then humbled Saturday by the Heat.

"We just jumped on them at every opportunity," center Brian Grant said. "I think everybody's been wondering when we were going to put together a four-quarter game."

This was it. The Heat shot a season-best 55.8 percent in reaching its highest point total of the season.

A game played with dapper coaches on each end of the sideline, featured one swirling into an abyss, another thriving despite the loss of franchise center Alonzo Mourning for the season.

"We played as well as we could play," Heat coach Pat Riley said.

In winning its fifth consecutive home game and for the seventh time in eight games overall, the Heat, at 20-15, moved five games above .500 for the first time this season.

The Celtics, by contrast, lost for the 11th time in 14 games. Pitino said his next step would be remaining at his South Florida home today to confer with his wife, then announce his intentions.

The night set up perfectly for the Heat on so many fronts, beyond the spotlight 24-point, 10-assist performance from point guard Tim Hardaway, who had his streak without a turnover end at 93 consecutive minutes, with a third-quarter miscue.

It afforded Dan Majerle the opportunity to break out of a 2-of-20 shooting funk in his previous seven games back from a preseason hamstring injury. The veteran forward broke the ice with an early layup and then drained two 3-pointers. He finished 3 of 3 for eight points.

That allowed Riley to ease Anthony Carter back into the lineup after a seven-game absence. The second-year point guard, coming off a groin injury, breezed through what remains of the Celtics' pressure defense and finished with five points and three assists in 19 minutes.

And it allocated enough low-risk action to create 15 minutes of playing time for forward Cedric Ceballos, his first opportunity in six games. He responded with nine points.

Not even two fouls called in a two-second span of the first quarter on guard Eddie Jones could endanger something this simple.

The Heat led 58-43 at halftime, 89-62 after three quarters and basically ran out the clock in the fourth, pushing its lead to 30 at one stage. With the Celtics exhausted after Friday's 100-88 loss to Golden State in Boston, the Heat was forced into only 11 turnovers.

While forward Antoine Walker was reveling in his 26 points -- imploring Pitino not to remove him when he was on a roll early and then playing through to the final buzzer -- the Heat had a broader range of successful-but-subdued performances.

Grant set the tone with eight rebounds and eight assists in the first quarter and finished with 16 points and 13 rebounds.

Power forward Anthony Mason scored in double figures for the 21st consecutive game to match the longest streak of his career.

Forward Bruce Bowen, a former Celtic, continued his offensive revival with three 3-pointers and 11 points.

And Jones set the tone on a mundane 15-point night with a reverse windmill dunk in the second quarter.